They had gone but a few miles, when the pack of hounds Captain Wirz was with took their trail, and came after them in full cry.

The boys tried to ran, but, exhausted as they were, they could make no headway.

Two of them were soon caught, but Tom Williams, who was so desperate that he preferred death to recapture, jumped into a mill-pond near by.

When he came up, it was in a lot of saw logs and drift wood that hid him from being seen from the shore.
The dogs stopped at the shore, and bayed after the disappearing prey.
The Rebels with them, who had seen Tom spring in, came up and made a pretty thorough search for him.

As they did not think to probe around the drift wood this was unsuccessful, and they came to the conclusion that Tom had been drowned.